1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a selective call communication system providing receiver battery saving capability, and more particularly to a selective call receiver having extended battery saving capability in a communication system utilizing a synchronous signaling protocol.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous communication systems in use today which utilize a variety of signaling protocols to provide battery saving functions for battery operated communication receivers. One such prior art signaling protocol is the POCSAG signaling protocol which provides the receiver battery saving capability by transmitting address and message information in batches which are subdivided into a sequence of frames to which selective call receivers are assigned. By assigning the selective call receivers, or pagers, to respond to information transmitted only within a specific frame within a batch transmission, a battery saving function was implemented. In the case of the POCSAG signaling protocol, a one to eight battery saving performance was achieved within the batch transmission time interval.
While such a battery saving function has proven to be advantageous, there are situations where it is desirable to extend the battery saving performance of at least some of the pagers operating within the communication system without altering the basic transmission format of the signaling protocol in use.